The Labor enquirer., 1887-01-08
lnAzrna4
A Psspls Whs ss5-An Hhesrtaannsat
with Was sssks Eysii -

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Animss, county seat Of Bent county,
Colorado. It Is q place with its history
all in front Of 1t. 50 tSspesk but It win
get'there." IA thorough. wide-swske,.
exceedingly progressive people can urge
1t along; for, with its population Of only
about 400 souls, the town Of Las Anlmas
has more advanced" men in 1t than
some places have visited wlth;twentv-
FIVE times the population.
There are really men in that little
town who are aware that something is
wrong with the way IN which our polit-
ical and economic affairs are conducted.
and I ran across two score of fanatics
who really think che Chics2o Anarchists
had q right to publicly denpunce gov
ernment which has not done its duty bv
the people. In the forty hours I was in
the townI did not see one person turn
pale at the mention of the word Social.
ism. and heard little else talked about.
Thif found to be due to the fact that the
very best, ablest and most prominent
citizens are either Socialists or students
Of the doctrine-which makes their be:
ing Socialists only question oftlme.
And want to say right here that. in
all my travels. have never met more
liberal and hospitable people than l
came in contact with at Las Animas.
and. without fear Of successful contra
diction, / assert that this is because they
are people who have risen out Of the
old and marrow ruts of selfishness by
discarding the dead-weight superstition,
prejudice and cruelties of barbarous GUS
toms. and stand out now upon the broad
platform Of Liberty, Equality and Fra
ternity. y.
! went TO Las Animas on Friday last
(arriying there at s o'clock a. m In re.
sponse toan invitation to be present at
meeting, dance and supper under the
auspices of the local assembly OF the
knights Of Labor, and discovered that
! was billed to deliver an address upon
The Labor Question" which. of course,
was nota surprise to me.
The entertainment was announced to
take place in the Town Hall, and at
o'clock FRIDAY evening, December 81
every chair and every inch of standing
room in the hall was filed. Quite 9
delegation from La Junta GO miles west
Vas present, and heard men say thev
had come in from the range eight and
ten miles to be present. MI. P. B.
Hirsh, master workman Of the knights
Of Labor, presided, and several Other
prominent citizens occupied the plat.
form. The meeting was called to or der,
and in few well-chosen words Chair
man Hirsh introduced Mr.. Joseph r
Buchanan, as the orator Of the evening
The following condensation of the ad.
dress is taken from the report prepared
Tor the Las Animas Leader]-
The speaker said II ave been an
nounced to speak upon "Tne Labor
Question a subject as broad as the uni
verse, a subject fraught with the deepest
interest TO every civilized people," He
then went on to call attention to the
fact that ministers, lawyers, doctors
scientists, business men and laborers
were all absorbed in the search for 80.
luton Of this pressing problem. He
spoxe of the change in material condi.
tions which the producers of this coun
try bad undergone during the past
twenty-five years. "In 1868 there were
no millionaires and no tramps: Now We
have thousands of men who count their
accumulations by the million, and q
million idle men tramp the country in
search Of work and find it not. The
bitter crv Of outcast London has become
the hopeless wall Of distressed America.
Eight railtbad barons alone have COB
gled the entire increase Of the nations
wealth during the past thirty wears and
thousand her monopolists have be-
come millionaires, and yet the capitalist
press speaks. of the Socialists and
knights Of Labor as the dangerous
classes. Thirty thousand women, in
Yretched sttics in the cityof New York
stitch their bodies andbones into
garments for the large manufac.
turing establishments. and man
age to exc out miserable existenc 9
upon S2 and So week. which they re-
ceive for sixteen hours daily labor"
He called attention to the fact tn 4
there are In this country railroad. b ank,
coal oil and other syndicates. either of
which had, and not unfrequeutlv exer-
else, more power than the government.
He said that Phil Armour, the butcher
prince, hel'i the power in his hands to
impoverisli everv cattle raiser in the
land, or to snatch the meat from 5,OO0,.
600 tables BY the scratch of pen. He
said there were in the audience owners
OF herds who had within the past few
months felt the power OF this man Ar
mour. u. W. .'
The speaker occupied nearly one b our
Of his time in pointing out the many
evidences Of the power Of monopoly in
the country and depicted in strong and
touching language the condition of the
working classes. He said that the So
called middle class" was being rapidly